FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT ART DEPARTMENT - PAGE 4

Seventeen-year-old Sharon Forster likes to put herself in a category with Picasso and Seurat. Picasso's abstract faces and Seurat's dots of color were so different in their time that critics questioned whether cubism and pointillism had anything to do with real art. It's a criticism Forster is all too familiar with, given the medium for her artistic expression: the computer. Yet she is among the burgeoning ranks of young people who are moving beyond the mere pencil and paintbrush and are instead grabbing the computer keyboard to make art with some new tools: digital color, sound and animation.

In an unusual ethical dilemma for a college campus, Northwestern University is trying to decide whether a highly regarded art professor should retain his job even though he pleaded guilty to stealing more than $30,000 in Social Security checks sent to his dead mother. During the school's holiday recess, Olan A. Rand Jr., an assistant professor of art history, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Boston for cashing his dead mother's Social Security checks from 1981 to 1986, stealing more than $30,000 from the government.

A memorial service for Jack Arends, 75, a nationally prominent art education figure, will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Federated Church, 612 W. State St., Sycamore. Mr. Arends, of Sycamore, died Nov. 16 in Green Valley, Ariz., where he and his wife, Margaret, had a retirement home. An NIU professor emeritus, he was instrumental in establishing Northern Illinois University's Art Department as one of the largest in the nation. He was honored in 1980 by the NIU Foundation for his role in getting NIU's multimillion dollar Visual Arts Building funded, designed and built.

Barrington High School officials are working with police to investigate questions raised about the fine arts department's operations and finances, officials said. "We are conducting an investigation for a report the high school made," Barrington police Chief Jerry Libit said, adding that police have interviewed several staff members. "The investigation is in the preliminary stages. " No criminal charges have been filed, police said Thursday, declining to address who, if anyone, is being specifically targeted in the probe.

Matilde Kelly, 91, retired chief of the Chicago Public Library's art room, designed and developed the art department at the downtown branch. She served in that position for 25 years, retiring in 1966. A resident of Chicago, she died Wednesday in the Admiral retirement home. In her library position, she initiated a series of exhibitions devoted exclusively to the works of Chicago artists and helped introduce many artists who later became well known in Chicago and elsewhere.

With a week left in the role he filled for seven years, James Cuno sat down with the Tribune to discuss his tenure as president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago, and his road to the J. Paul Getty Trust, of which he becomes president and CEO on Aug. 1. Q: Can you speak about your decision-making process to leave the Art Institute for the Getty? A: The attraction of the Getty Trust is that it's not a museum, but rather it's an organization with four programs, of which one is museum, one is research institute, one is conservation institute, and one is a foundation that gives away grant money; and the four together do very good and important work around the world.

Robert J. Loescher, a specialist in Spanish and Latin American art, brought fresh academic rigor to the art history program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he taught for more than 30 years. Mr. Loescher, 70, died in his Lake View home Saturday, Dec. 8, said Shay DeGrandis, administrative director for art history, theory and criticism at the School of the Art Institute.Mr. Loescher had suffered from heart problems and was weakened by a recent operation, she said.

Jacob B. Nolan, age 21 of Spring Green, passed away on Sunday, March 12, 2006 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. He was born on September 25, 1984 in Oak Forest, IL, the son of Ron and Jackie, nee Calder, Nolan. Jacob graduated from the River Valley High School in 2003 where he participated on the River Valley Ski Team. Jacob was planning on going into the U.S. Navy in April of 2006 and was a member of St. Luke's Catholic Church in Plain, WI. Survivors include, his parents, Ron and Jackie Nolan of Plain; two brothers, Mike and Sean Nolan of Plain; a sister, Erin Nolan of Plain; maternal grandmother, Annette Calder of Oak Forest, IL; paternal grandmother, Barbara Nolan of Lockport, IL; many beloved aunts, uncles and cousins.

The first time Judith Belushi Pisano went to Martha's Vineyard, she was accompanied by the man who would become her first husband, a then-little-known actor named John Belushi. It was his first visit too. They were in the their early 20s, high school sweethearts from the Chicago suburbs. It was 1974. "Saturday Night Live," which would make Belushi a household name, was a little more than a year away. Belushi had moved to New York to be in National Lampoon magazine's off-Broadway revue "Lemmings."